Coexistence management using A-priori time domain information

ABSTRACT

A user equipment (UE) uses information regarding the timing of scheduling mobile wireless services (MWS) RAT communications to improve MWS and wireless network connectivity (WCN) radio access technology coexistence. To allow sufficient time for an uplink grant to be received by the UE in advance of the scheduled uplink time, an uplink grant may be sent in advance of the scheduled uplink time. In some instances, the UE may receive an indication of scheduled uplink time of the MWS RAT via a physical layer communication. The UE may schedule communications of the WCN RAT based at least in part on the indication of future activity.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 61/692,185, entitled, COEXISTENCEMANAGEMENT USING A-PRIORI TIME DOMAIN INFORMATION, filed on Aug. 22,2012, in the names of HomChaudhuri, et al., the disclosure of which isexpressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to multi-radiotechniques and, more specifically, to coexistence techniques formulti-radio devices.

2. Background

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide varioustypes of communication content such as voice, data, and so on. Thesesystems may be multiple-access systems capable of supportingcommunication with multiple users by sharing the available systemresources (e.g., bandwidth and transmit power). Examples of suchmultiple access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA)systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequencydivision multiple access (FDMA) systems, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE)systems, and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)systems.

Generally, a wireless multiple-access communication system cansimultaneously support communication for multiple wireless terminals.Each terminal communicates with one or more base stations viatransmissions on the forward and reverse links. The forward link (ordownlink) refers to the communication link from the base stations to theterminals, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communicationlink from the terminals to the base stations. This communication linkmay be established via a single-in-single-out, multiple-in-single-out ora multiple-in-multiple out (MIMO) system.

Some conventional advanced devices include multiple radios fortransmitting/receiving using different Radio Access Technologies (RATs).Examples of RATs include, e.g., Universal Mobile TelecommunicationsSystem (UMTS), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), cdma2000,WiMAX, WLAN (e.g., WiFi), Bluetooth, LTE, and the like.

An example mobile device includes an LTE User Equipment (UE), such as afourth generation (4G) mobile phone. Such 4G phone may include variousradios to provide a variety of functions for the user. For purposes ofthis example, the 4G phone includes an LTE radio for voice and data, anIEEE 802.11 (WiFi) radio, a Global Positioning System (GPS) radio, and aBluetooth radio, where two of the above or all four may operatesimultaneously. While the different radios provide usefulfunctionalities for the phone, their inclusion in a single device givesrise to coexistence issues. Specifically, operation of one radio may insome cases interfere with operation of another radio through radiative,conductive, resource collision, and/or other interference mechanisms.Coexistence issues include such interference.

This is especially true for the LTE uplink channel, which is adjacent tothe Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) band and may causeinterference therewith. It is noted that Bluetooth and some Wireless LAN(WLAN) channels fall within the ISM band. In some instances, a Bluetootherror rate can become unacceptable when LTE is active in some channelsof Band 7 or even Band 40 for some Bluetooth channel conditions. Eventhough there is no significant degradation to LTE, simultaneousoperation with Bluetooth can result in disruption in voice servicesterminating in a Bluetooth headset. Such disruption may be unacceptableto the consumer. A similar issue exists when LTE transmissions interferewith GPS. Currently, there is no mechanism that can solve this issuesince LTE by itself does not experience any degradation

With reference specifically to LTE, it is noted that a UE communicateswith an evolved NodeB (eNB; e.g., a base station for a wirelesscommunications network) to inform the eNB of interference seen by the UEon the downlink. Furthermore, the eNB may be able to estimateinterference at the UE using a downlink error rate. In some instances,the eNB and the UE can cooperate to find a solution that reducesinterference at the UE, even interference due to radios within the UEitself. However, in conventional LTE, the interference estimatesregarding the downlink may not be adequate to comprehensively addressinterference.

In one instance, an LTE uplink signal interferes with a Bluetooth signalor WLAN signal. However, such interference is not reflected in thedownlink measurement reports at the eNB. As a result, unilateral actionon the part of the UE (e.g., moving the uplink signal to a differentchannel) may be thwarted by the eNB, which is not aware of the uplinkcoexistence issue and seeks to undo the unilateral action. For instance,even if the UE re-establishes the connection on a different frequencychannel, the network can still handover the UE back to the originalfrequency channel that was corrupted by the in-device interference. Thisis a likely scenario because the desired signal strength on thecorrupted channel may sometimes be higher than reflected in themeasurement reports of the new channel based on Reference SignalReceived Power (RSRP) to the eNB. Hence, a ping-pong effect of beingtransferred back and forth between the corrupted channel and the desiredchannel can happen if the eNB uses RSRP reports to make handoverdecisions.

Other unilateral action on the part of the UE, such as simply stoppinguplink communications without coordination of the eNB may cause powerloop malfunctions at the eNB. Additional issues that exist inconventional LTE include a general lack of ability on the part of the UEto suggest desired configurations as an alternative to configurationsthat have coexistence issues. For at least these reasons, uplinkcoexistence issues at the UE may remain unresolved for a long timeperiod, degrading performance and efficiency for other radios of the UE.

SUMMARY

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method for wirelesscommunication includes receiving an indication of time and frequencyresources of future activity of a mobile wireless service (MWS) radioaccess technology (RAT) via a physical layer communication. The methodmay also include scheduling communications of a wireless connectivitynetwork (WCN) radio access technology (RAT) based at least in part onthe indication of time and frequency resources of future activity.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, an apparatus forwireless communication includes means for receiving an indication oftime and frequency resources of future activity of a mobile wirelessservice (MWS) radio access technology (RAT) via a physical layercommunication. The apparatus may also include means for schedulingcommunications of a wireless connectivity network (WCN) radio accesstechnology (RAT) based at least in part on the indication of time andfrequency resources of future activity.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a computer programproduct for wireless communication in a wireless network includes acomputer readable medium having non-transitory program code recordedthereon. The program code includes program code to receive an indicationof time and frequency resources of future activity of a mobile wirelessservice (MWS) radio access technology (RAT) via a physical layercommunication. The program code also includes program code to schedulecommunications of a wireless connectivity network (WCN) radio accesstechnology (RAT) based at least in part on the indication of time andfrequency resources of future activity.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, an apparatus forwireless communication includes a memory and a processor(s) coupled tothe memory. The processor(s) is configured to receive an indication oftime and frequency resources of future activity of a mobile wirelessservice (MWS) radio access technology (RAT) via a physical layercommunication. The processor(s) is further configured to schedulecommunications of a wireless connectivity network (WCN) radio accesstechnology (RAT) based at least in part on the indication of time andfrequency resources of future activity.

This has outlined, rather broadly, the features and technical advantagesof the present disclosure in order that the detailed description thatfollows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages ofthe disclosure will be described below. It should be appreciated bythose skilled in the art that this disclosure may be readily utilized asa basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out thesame purposes of the present disclosure. It should also be realized bythose skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do notdepart from the teachings of the disclosure as set forth in the appendedclaims. The novel features, which are believed to be characteristic ofthe disclosure, both as to its organization and method of operation,together with further objects and advantages, will be better understoodfrom the following description when considered in connection with theaccompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, thateach of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration anddescription only and is not intended as a definition of the limits ofthe present disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features, nature, and advantages of the present disclosure willbecome more apparent from the detailed description set forth below whentaken in conjunction with the drawings in which like referencecharacters identify correspondingly throughout.

FIG. 1 illustrates a multiple access wireless communication systemaccording to one aspect.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a communication system according to oneaspect.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary frame structure in downlink Long TermEvolution (LTE) communications.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an exemplary framestructure in uplink Long Term Evolution (LTE) communications.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example wireless communication environment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example design for a multi-radiowireless device.

FIG. 7 is graph showing respective potential collisions between sevenexample radios in a given decision period.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing operation of an example Coexistence Manager(CxM) over time.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating adjacent frequency bands.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a system for providing support within awireless communication environment for multi-radio coexistencemanagement according to one aspect of the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a multi-radio wireless device according toone aspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 12 is a timing diagram that shows an uplink grant message sent fromthe base station to the UE during the downlink control portion ofsubframe n.

FIG. 13 is a timing diagram that shows a time division duplexconfiguration in which communication inactivity may be detected,according to one aspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 14 is a timing diagram illustrating measurement gap in whichcommunication inactivity may be detected, according to one aspect of thedisclosure.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating method for MWS communicationinactivity detection to improve MWS and WCN radio access technologycoexistence according to one aspect of the present disclosure.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardwareimplementation for an apparatus employing a coexistence mitigationsystem.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various aspects of the disclosure provide techniques to mitigatecoexistence issues in multi-radio devices, where significant in-devicecoexistence problems can exist between, mobile wireless services (MWS)devices (e.g., LTE) and wireless network connectivity (WCN) devices thatoperate in the Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) bands (e.g., forBluetooth/wireless local area network (BT/WLAN)). As explained above,some coexistence issues persist because an eNB is not aware ofinterference on the UE side that is experienced by other radios. Toreduce the interference and manage inter-radio coexistence, it isdesirable to coordinate behavior of the radios to reduce the time oneradio is receiving while another, potentially interfering, radio istransmitting. One aspect of the present disclosure uses informationregarding the timing of scheduling MWS RAT communications to improve MWSand WCN radio access technology coexistence.

The techniques described herein can be used for various wirelesscommunication networks such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, FrequencyDivision Multiple Access (FDMA) networks, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA)networks, Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks, etc. The terms“networks” and “systems” are often used interchangeably. A CDMA networkcan implement a radio technology such as Universal Terrestrial RadioAccess (UTRA), cdma2000, etc. UTRA includes Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) andLow Chip Rate (LCR). cdma2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856standards. A TDMA network can implement a radio technology such asGlobal System for Mobile Communications (GSM). An OFDMA network canimplement a radio technology such as Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), IEEE 802.11,IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDM®, etc. UTRA, E-UTRA, and GSM arepart of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). Long TermEvolution (LTE) is an upcoming release of UMTS that uses E-UTRA. UTRA,E-UTRA, GSM, UMTS and LTE are described in documents from anorganization named “3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project” (3GPP).CDMA2000 is described in documents from an organization named “3^(rd)Generation Partnership Project 2” (3GPP2). These various radiotechnologies and standards are known in the art. For clarity, certainaspects of the techniques are described below for LTE, and LTEterminology is used in portions of the description below.

Single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA), whichutilizes single carrier modulation and frequency domain equalization isa technique that can be utilized with various aspects described herein.SC-FDMA has similar performance and essentially the same overallcomplexity as those of an OFDMA system. SC-FDMA signal has lowerpeak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) because of its inherent singlecarrier structure. SC-FDMA has drawn great attention, especially in theuplink communications where lower PAPR greatly benefits the mobileterminal in terms of transmit power efficiency. It is currently aworking assumption for an uplink multiple access scheme in 3GPP LongTerm Evolution (LTE), or Evolved UTRA.

Referring to FIG. 1, a multiple access wireless communication systemaccording to one aspect is illustrated. An evolved Node B 100 (eNB)includes a computer 115 that has processing resources and memoryresources to manage the LTE communications by allocating resources andparameters, granting/denying requests from user equipment, and/or thelike. The eNB 100 also has multiple antenna groups, one group includingantenna 104 and antenna 106, another group including antenna 108 andantenna 110, and an additional group including antenna 112 and antenna114. In FIG. 1, only two antennas are shown for each antenna group,however, more or fewer antennas can be utilized for each antenna group.A User Equipment (UE) 116 (also referred to as an Access Terminal (AT))is in communication with antennas 112 and 114, while antennas 112 and114 transmit information to the UE 116 over an uplink (UL) 188. The UE122 is in communication with antennas 106 and 108, while antennas 106and 108 transmit information to the UE 122 over a downlink (DL) 126 andreceive information from the UE 122 over an uplink 124. In a frequencydivision duplex (FDD) system, communication links 118, 120, 124 and 126can use different frequencies for communication. For example, thedownlink 120 can use a different frequency than used by the uplink 118.

Each group of antennas and/or the area in which they are designed tocommunicate is often referred to as a sector of the eNB. In this aspect,respective antenna groups are designed to communicate to UEs in a sectorof the areas covered by the eNB 100.

In communication over the downlinks 120 and 126, the transmittingantennas of the eNB 100 utilize beamforming to improve thesignal-to-noise ratio of the uplinks for the different UEs 116 and 122.Also, an eNB using beamforming to transmit to UEs scattered randomlythrough its coverage causes less interference to UEs in neighboringcells than a UE transmitting through a single antenna to all its UEs.

An eNB can be a fixed station used for communicating with the terminalsand can also be referred to as an access point, base station, or someother terminology. A UE can also be called an access terminal, awireless communication device, terminal, or some other terminology.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an aspect of a transmitter system 210 (alsoknown as an eNB) and a receiver system 250 (also known as a UE) in aMIMO system 200. In some instances, both a UE and an eNB each have atransceiver that includes a transmitter system and a receiver system. Atthe transmitter system 210, traffic data for a number of data streams isprovided from a data source 212 to a transmit (TX) data processor 214.

A MIMO system employs multiple (N_(T)) transmit antennas and multiple(N_(R)) receive antennas for data transmission. A MIMO channel formed bythe N_(T) transmit and N_(R) receive antennas may be decomposed intoN_(S) independent channels, which are also referred to as spatialchannels, wherein N_(S)≦min{N_(T), N_(R)}. Each of the N_(S) independentchannels corresponds to a dimension. The MIMO system can provideimproved performance (e.g., higher throughput and/or greaterreliability) if the additional dimensionalities created by the multipletransmit and receive antennas are utilized.

A MIMO system supports time division duplex (TDD) and frequency divisionduplex (FDD) systems. In a TDD system, the uplink and downlinktransmissions are on the same frequency region so that the reciprocityprinciple allows the estimation of the downlink channel from the uplinkchannel. This enables the eNB to extract transmit beamforming gain onthe downlink when multiple antennas are available at the eNB.

In an aspect, each data stream is transmitted over a respective transmitantenna. The TX data processor 214 formats, codes, and interleaves thetraffic data for each data stream based on a particular coding schemeselected for that data stream to provide coded data.

The coded data for each data stream can be multiplexed with pilot datausing OFDM techniques. The pilot data is a known data pattern processedin a known manner and can be used at the receiver system to estimate thechannel response. The multiplexed pilot and coded data for each datastream is then modulated (e.g., symbol mapped) based on a particularmodulation scheme (e.g., BPSK, QPSK, M-PSK, or M-QAM) selected for thatdata stream to provide modulation symbols. The data rate, coding, andmodulation for each data stream can be determined by instructionsperformed by a processor 230 operating with a memory 232.

The modulation symbols for respective data streams are then provided toa TX MIMO processor 220, which can further process the modulationsymbols (e.g., for OFDM). The TX MIMO processor 220 then provides N_(T)modulation symbol streams to N_(T) transmitters (TMTR) 222 a through 222t. In certain aspects, the TX MIMO processor 220 applies beamformingweights to the symbols of the data streams and to the antenna from whichthe symbol is being transmitted.

Each transmitter 222 receives and processes a respective symbol streamto provide one or more analog signals, and further conditions (e.g.,amplifies, filters, and upconverts) the analog signals to provide amodulated signal suitable for transmission over the MIMO channel. N_(T)modulated signals from the transmitters 222 a through 222 t are thentransmitted from N_(T) antennas 224 a through 224 t, respectively.

At a receiver system 250, the transmitted modulated signals are receivedby N_(R) antennas 252 a through 252 r and the received signal from eachantenna 252 is provided to a respective receiver (RCVR) 254 a through254 r. Each receiver 254 conditions (e.g., filters, amplifies, anddownconverts) a respective received signal, digitizes the conditionedsignal to provide samples, and further processes the samples to providea corresponding “received” symbol stream.

An RX data processor 260 then receives and processes the N_(R) receivedsymbol streams from N_(R) receivers 254 based on a particular receiverprocessing technique to provide N_(R) “detected” symbol streams. The RXdata processor 260 then demodulates, deinterleaves, and decodes eachdetected symbol stream to recover the traffic data for the data stream.The processing by the RX data processor 260 is complementary to theprocessing performed by the TX MIMO processor 220 and the TX dataprocessor 214 at the transmitter system 210.

A processor 270 (operating with a memory 272) periodically determineswhich pre-coding matrix to use (discussed below). The processor 270formulates an uplink message having a matrix index portion and a rankvalue portion.

The uplink message can include various types of information regardingthe communication link and/or the received data stream. The uplinkmessage is then processed by a TX data processor 238, which alsoreceives traffic data for a number of data streams from a data source236, modulated by a modulator 280, conditioned by transmitters 254 athrough 254 r, and transmitted back to the transmitter system 210.

At the transmitter system 210, the modulated signals from the receiversystem 250 are received by antennas 224, conditioned by receivers 222,demodulated by a demodulator 240, and processed by an RX data processor242 to extract the uplink message transmitted by the receiver system250. The processor 230 then determines which pre-coding matrix to usefor determining the beamforming weights, then processes the extractedmessage.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an exemplary framestructure in downlink Long Term Evolution (LTE) communications. Thetransmission timeline for the downlink may be partitioned into units ofradio frames. Each radio frame may have a predetermined duration (e.g.,10 milliseconds (ms)) and may be partitioned into 10 subframes withindices of 0 through 9. Each subframe may include two slots. Each radioframe may thus include 20 slots with indices of 0 through 19. Each slotmay include L symbol periods, e.g., 7 symbol periods for a normal cyclicprefix (as shown in FIG. 3) or 6 symbol periods for an extended cyclicprefix. The 2L symbol periods in each subframe may be assigned indicesof 0 through 2L−1. The available time frequency resources may bepartitioned into resource blocks. Each resource block may cover Nsubcarriers (e.g., 12 subcarriers) in one slot.

In LTE, an eNB may send a Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) and aSecondary Synchronization Signal (SSS) for each cell in the eNB. The PSSand SSS may be sent in symbol periods 6 and 5, respectively, in each ofsubframes 0 and 5 of each radio frame with the normal cyclic prefix, asshown in FIG. 3. The synchronization signals may be used by UEs for celldetection and acquisition. The eNB may send a Physical Broadcast Channel(PBCH) in symbol periods 0 to 3 in slot 1 of subframe 0. The PBCH maycarry certain system information.

The eNB may send a Cell-specific Reference Signal (CRS) for each cell inthe eNB. The CRS may be sent in symbols 0, 1, and 4 of each slot in caseof the normal cyclic prefix, and in symbols 0, 1, and 3 of each slot incase of the extended cyclic prefix. The CRS may be used by UEs forcoherent demodulation of physical channels, timing and frequencytracking, Radio Link Monitoring (RLM), Reference Signal Received Power(RSRP), and Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) measurements, etc.

The eNB may send a Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) inthe first symbol period of each subframe, as seen in FIG. 3. The PCFICHmay convey the number of symbol periods (M) used for control channels,where M may be equal to 1, 2 or 3 and may change from subframe tosubframe. M may also be equal to 4 for a small system bandwidth, e.g.,with less than 10 resource blocks. In the example shown in FIG. 3, M=3.The eNB may send a Physical HARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH) and aPhysical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) in the first M symbol periodsof each subframe. The PDCCH and PHICH are also included in the firstthree symbol periods in the example shown in FIG. 3. The PHICH may carryinformation to support Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ). The PDCCHmay carry information on resource allocation for UEs and controlinformation for downlink channels. The eNB may send a Physical DownlinkShared Channel (PDSCH) in the remaining symbol periods of each subframe.The PDSCH may carry data for UEs scheduled for data transmission on thedownlink. The various signals and channels in LTE are described in 3GPPTS 36.211, entitled “Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access(E-UTRA); Physical Channels and Modulation,” which is publiclyavailable.

The eNB may send the PSS, SSS and PBCH in the center 1.08 MHz of thesystem bandwidth used by the eNB. The eNB may send the PCFICH and PHICHacross the entire system bandwidth in each symbol period in which thesechannels are sent. The eNB may send the PDCCH to groups of UEs incertain portions of the system bandwidth. The eNB may send the PDSCH tospecific UEs in specific portions of the system bandwidth. The eNB maysend the PSS, SSS, PBCH, PCFICH and PHICH in a broadcast manner to allUEs, may send the PDCCH in a unicast manner to specific UEs, and mayalso send the PDSCH in a unicast manner to specific UEs.

A number of resource elements may be available in each symbol period.Each resource element may cover one subcarrier in one symbol period andmay be used to send one modulation symbol, which may be a real orcomplex value. Resource elements not used for a reference signal in eachsymbol period may be arranged into resource element groups (REGs). EachREG may include four resource elements in one symbol period. The PCFICHmay occupy four REGs, which may be spaced approximately equally acrossfrequency, in symbol period 0. The PHICH may occupy three REGs, whichmay be spread across frequency, in one or more configurable symbolperiods. For example, the three REGs for the PHICH may all belong insymbol period 0 or may be spread in symbol periods 0, 1 and 2. The PDCCHmay occupy 9, 18, 32 or 64 REGs, which may be selected from theavailable REGs, in the first M symbol periods. Only certain combinationsof REGs may be allowed for the PDCCH.

A UE may know the specific REGs used for the PHICH and the PCFICH. TheUE may search different combinations of REGs for the PDCCH. The numberof combinations to search is typically less than the number of allowedcombinations for the PDCCH. An eNB may send the PDCCH to the UE in anyof the combinations that the UE will search.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an exemplary framestructure in uplink Long Term Evolution (LTE) communications. Theavailable Resource Blocks (RBs) for the uplink may be partitioned into adata section and a control section. The control section may be formed atthe two edges of the system bandwidth and may have a configurable size.The resource blocks in the control section may be assigned to UEs fortransmission of control information. The data section may include allresource blocks not included in the control section. The design in FIG.4 results in the data section including contiguous subcarriers, whichmay allow a single UE to be assigned all of the contiguous subcarriersin the data section.

A UE may be assigned resource blocks in the control section to transmitcontrol information to an eNB. The UE may also be assigned resourceblocks in the data section to transmit data to the eNodeB. The UE maytransmit control information in a Physical Uplink Control Channel(PUCCH) on the assigned resource blocks in the control section. The UEmay transmit only data or both data and control information in aPhysical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) on the assigned resource blocksin the data section. An uplink transmission may span both slots of asubframe and may hop across frequency as shown in FIG. 4.

The PSS, SSS, CRS, PBCH, PUCCH and PUSCH in LTE are described in 3GPP TS36.211, entitled “Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA);Physical Channels and Modulation,” which is publicly available.

In an aspect, described herein are systems and methods for providingsupport within a wireless communication environment, such as a 3GPP LTEenvironment or the like, to facilitate multi-radio coexistencesolutions.

Referring now to FIG. 5, illustrated is an example wirelesscommunication environment 500 in which various aspects described hereincan function. The wireless communication environment 500 can include awireless device 510, which can be capable of communicating with multiplecommunication systems. These systems can include, for example, one ormore cellular systems 520 and/or 530, one or more WLAN systems 540and/or 550, one or more wireless personal area network (WPAN) systems560, one or more broadcast systems 570, one or more satellitepositioning systems 580, other systems not shown in FIG. 5, or anycombination thereof. It should be appreciated that in the followingdescription the terms “network” and “system” are often usedinterchangeably.

The cellular systems 520 and 530 can each be a CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA,Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), or other suitable system. A CDMA systemcan implement a radio technology such as Universal Terrestrial RadioAccess (UTRA), cdma2000, etc. UTRA includes Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) andother variants of CDMA. Moreover, cdma2000 covers IS-2000 (CDMA2000 1X),IS-95 and IS-856 (HRPD) standards. A TDMA system can implement a radiotechnology such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM),Digital Advanced Mobile Phone System (D-AMPS), etc. An OFDMA system canimplement a radio technology such as Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra MobileBroadband (UMB), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDM®, etc.UTRA and E-UTRA are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System(UMTS). 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) are newreleases of UMTS that use E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A and GSMare described in documents from an organization named “3^(rd) GenerationPartnership Project” (3GPP). cdma2000 and UMB are described in documentsfrom an organization named “3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project 2”(3GPP2). In an aspect, the cellular system 520 can include a number ofbase stations 522, which can support bi-directional communication forwireless devices within their coverage. Similarly, the cellular system530 can include a number of base stations 532 that can supportbi-directional communication for wireless devices within their coverage.

WLAN systems 540 and 550 can respectively implement radio technologiessuch as IEEE 802.11 (WiFi), Hiperlan, etc. The WLAN system 540 caninclude one or more access points 542 that can support bi-directionalcommunication. Similarly, the WLAN system 550 can include one or moreaccess points 552 that can support bi-directional communication. TheWPAN system 560 can implement a radio technology such as Bluetooth (BT),IEEE 802.15, etc. Further, the WPAN system 560 can supportbi-directional communication for various devices such as wireless device510, a headset 562, a computer 564, a mouse 566, or the like.

The broadcast system 570 can be a television (TV) broadcast system, afrequency modulation (FM) broadcast system, a digital broadcast system,etc. A digital broadcast system can implement a radio technology such asMediaFLO™, Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds (DVB-H), IntegratedServices Digital Broadcasting for Terrestrial Television Broadcasting(ISDB-T), or the like. Further, the broadcast system 570 can include oneor more broadcast stations 572 that can support one-way communication.

The satellite positioning system 580 can be the United States GlobalPositioning System (GPS), the European Galileo system, the RussianGLONASS system, the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) over Japan, theIndian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) over India, theBeidou system over China, and/or any other suitable system. Further, thesatellite positioning system 580 can include a number of satellites 582that transmit signals for position determination.

In an aspect, the wireless device 510 can be stationary or mobile andcan also be referred to as a user equipment (UE), a mobile station, amobile equipment, a terminal, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, astation, etc. The wireless device 510 can be cellular phone, a personaldigital assistance (PDA), a wireless modem, a handheld device, a laptopcomputer, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, etc. Inaddition, a wireless device 510 can engage in two-way communication withthe cellular system 520 and/or 530, the WLAN system 540 and/or 550,devices with the WPAN system 560, and/or any other suitable systems(s)and/or devices(s). The wireless device 510 can additionally oralternatively receive signals from the broadcast system 570 and/orsatellite positioning system 580. In general, it can be appreciated thatthe wireless device 510 can communicate with any number of systems atany given moment. Also, the wireless device 510 may experiencecoexistence issues among various ones of its constituent radio devicesthat operate at the same time. Accordingly, device 510 includes acoexistence manager (CxM, not shown) that has a functional module todetect and mitigate coexistence issues, as explained further below.

Turning next to FIG. 6, a block diagram is provided that illustrates anexample design for a multi-radio wireless device 600 and may be used asan implementation of the radio 510 of FIG. 5. As FIG. 6 illustrates, thewireless device 600 can include N radios 620 a through 620 n, which canbe coupled to N antennas 610 a through 610 n, respectively, where N canbe any integer value. It should be appreciated, however, that respectiveradios 620 can be coupled to any number of antennas 610 and thatmultiple radios 620 can also share a given antenna 610.

In general, a radio 620 can be a unit that radiates or emits energy inan electromagnetic spectrum, receives energy in an electromagneticspectrum, or generates energy that propagates via conductive means. Byway of example, a radio 620 can be a unit that transmits a signal to asystem or a device or a unit that receives signals from a system ordevice. Accordingly, it can be appreciated that a radio 620 can beutilized to support wireless communication. In another example, a radio620 can also be a unit (e.g., a screen on a computer, a circuit board,etc.) that emits noise, which can impact the performance of otherradios. Accordingly, it can be further appreciated that a radio 620 canalso be a unit that emits noise and interference without supportingwireless communication.

In an aspect, respective radios 620 can support communication with oneor more systems. Multiple radios 620 can additionally or alternativelybe used for a given system, e.g., to transmit or receive on differentfrequency bands (e.g., cellular and PCS bands).

In another aspect, a digital processor 630 can be coupled to radios 620a through 620 n and can perform various functions, such as processingfor data being transmitted or received via the radios 620. Theprocessing for each radio 620 can be dependent on the radio technologysupported by that radio and can include encryption, encoding,modulation, etc., for a transmitter; demodulation, decoding, decryption,etc., for a receiver, or the like. In one example, the digital processor630 can include a coexistence manager (CxM) 640 that can controloperation of the radios 620 in order to improve the performance of thewireless device 600 as generally described herein. The coexistencemanager 640 can have access to a database 644, which can storeinformation used to control the operation of the radios 620. Asexplained further below, the coexistence manager 640 can be adapted fora variety of techniques to decrease interference between the radios. Inone example, the coexistence manager 640 requests a measurement gappattern or DRX cycle that allows an ISM radio to communicate duringperiods of LTE inactivity.

For simplicity, digital processor 630 is shown in FIG. 6 as a singleprocessor. However, it should be appreciated that the digital processor630 can include any number of processors, controllers, memories, etc. Inone example, a controller/processor 650 can direct the operation ofvarious units within the wireless device 600. Additionally oralternatively, a memory 652 can store program codes and data for thewireless device 600. The digital processor 630, controller/processor650, and memory 652 can be implemented on one or more integratedcircuits (ICs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.By way of specific, non-limiting example, the digital processor 630 canbe implemented on a Mobile Station Modem (MSM) ASIC.

In an aspect, the coexistence manager 640 can manage operation ofrespective radios 620 utilized by wireless device 600 in order to avoidinterference and/or other performance degradation associated withcollisions between respective radios 620. Coexistence manager 640 mayperform one or more processes, such as those illustrated in FIG. 17. Byway of further illustration, a graph 700 in FIG. 7 represents respectivepotential collisions between seven example radios in a given decisionperiod. In the example shown in graph 700, the seven radios include aWLAN transmitter (Tw), an LTE transmitter (Tl), an FM transmitter (Tf),a GSM/WCDMA transmitter (Tc/Tw), an LTE receiver (Rl), a Bluetoothreceiver (Rb), and a GPS receiver (Rg). The four transmitters arerepresented by four nodes on the left side of the graph 700. The fourreceivers are represented by three nodes on the right side of the graph700.

A potential collision between a transmitter and a receiver isrepresented on the graph 700 by a branch connecting the node for thetransmitter and the node for the receiver. Accordingly, in the exampleshown in the graph 700, collisions may exist between (1) the WLANtransmitter (Tw) and the Bluetooth receiver (Rb); (2) the LTEtransmitter (Tl) and the Bluetooth receiver (Rb); (3) the WLANtransmitter (Tw) and the LTE receiver (Rl); (4) the FM transmitter (Tf)and the GPS receiver (Rg); (5) a WLAN transmitter (Tw), a GSM/WCDMAtransmitter (Tc/Tw), and a GPS receiver (Rg).

In one aspect, an example coexistence manager 640 can operate in time ina manner such as that shown by diagram 800 in FIG. 8. As diagram 800illustrates, a timeline for coexistence manager operation can be dividedinto Decision Units (DUs), which can be any suitable uniform ornon-uniform length (e.g., 100 μs) where notifications are processed, anda response phase (e.g., 20 μs) where commands are provided to variousradios 620 and/or other operations are performed based on actions takenin the evaluation phase. In one example, the timeline shown in thediagram 800 can have a latency parameter defined by a worst caseoperation of the timeline, e.g., the timing of a response in the casethat a notification is obtained from a given radio immediately followingtermination of the notification phase in a given DU.

As shown in FIG. 9, Long Term Evolution (LTE) in band 7 (for frequencydivision duplex (FDD) uplink), band 40 (for time division duplex (TDD)communication), and band 38 (for TDD downlink) is adjacent to the 2.4GHz Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) band used by Bluetooth (BT)and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technologies. Frequency planningfor these bands is such that there is limited or no guard bandpermitting traditional filtering solutions to avoid interference atadjacent frequencies. For example, a 20 MHz guard band exists betweenISM and band 7, but no guard band exists between ISM and band 40.

To be compliant with appropriate standards, communication devicesoperating over a particular band are to be operable over the entirespecified frequency range. For example, in order to be LTE compliant, amobile station/user equipment should be able to communicate across theentirety of both band 40 (2300-2400 MHz) and band 7 (2500-2570 MHz) asdefined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). Without asufficient guard band, devices employ filters that overlap into otherbands causing band interference. Because band 40 filters are 100 MHzwide to cover the entire band, the rollover from those filters crossesover into the ISM band causing interference. Similarly, ISM devices thatuse the entirety of the ISM band (e.g., from 2401 through approximately2480 MHz) will employ filters that rollover into the neighboring band 40and band 7 and may cause interference.

In-device coexistence problems can exist with respect to a UE betweenresources such as, for example, LTE and ISM bands (e.g., forBluetooth/WLAN). In current LTE implementations, any interference issuesto LTE are reflected in the downlink measurements (e.g., ReferenceSignal Received Quality (RSRQ) metrics, etc.) reported by a UE and/orthe downlink error rate which the eNB can use to make inter-frequency orinter-RAT handoff decisions to, e.g., move LTE to a channel or RAT withno coexistence issues. However, it can be appreciated that theseexisting techniques will not work if, for example, the LTE uplink iscausing interference to Bluetooth/WLAN but the LTE downlink does not seeany interference from Bluetooth/WLAN. More particularly, even if the UEautonomously moves itself to another channel on the uplink, the eNB canin some cases handover the UE back to the problematic channel for loadbalancing purposes. In any case, it can be appreciated that existingtechniques do not facilitate use of the bandwidth of the problematicchannel in the most efficient way.

Turning now to FIG. 10, a block diagram of a system 1000 for providingsupport within a wireless communication environment for multi-radiocoexistence management is illustrated. In an aspect, the system 1000 caninclude one or more UEs 1010 and/or eNBs 1040, which can engage inuplink and/or downlink communications, and/or any other suitablecommunication with each other and/or any other entities in the system1000. In one example, the UE 1010 and/or eNB 1040 can be operable tocommunicate using a variety resources, including frequency channels andsub-bands, some of which can potentially be colliding with other radioresources (e.g., a broadband radio such as an LTE modem). Thus, the UE1010 can utilize various techniques for managing coexistence betweenmultiple radios utilized by the UE 1010, as generally described herein.

To mitigate at least the above shortcomings, the UE 1010 can utilizerespective features described herein and illustrated by the system 1000to facilitate support for multi-radio coexistence within the UE 1010.For example, a schedule monitoring module 1012, an inactivity detectionmodule 1014, and a radio access technology (RAT) scheduling module 1016may be implemented. The schedule monitoring module 1012 monitors thescheduling of a mobile wireless services (MWS) RAT's communications. Theinactivity detection module 1014 monitors the MWS communicationscheduling to determine periods of MWS communication inactivity. The RATscheduling module 1016 may enable operation of WCN RATs and MWS RATsdepending on the detection of MWS communication inactivity using themethods described below. The various modules 1012-1016 may, in someexamples, be implemented as part of a coexistence manager such as theCxM 640 of FIG. 6. The various modules 1012-1016 and others may beconfigured to implement the embodiments discussed herein.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a multi-radio wireless device 1100according to one aspect of the disclosure. As FIG. 11 illustrates, thewireless device 600 includes a mobile wireless services (MWS) radioaccess technology (MWS RAT) 1120 a and a wireless connectivity network(WCN) radio access technology (WCN RAT) 1120 b that are coupled toantennas 1110 a and 1110 b, respectively. In this configuration, the MWSRAT 1120 a may be an LTE RAT and the WCN RAT 1120 b may be a Bluetooth(BT) or wireless local area network (WLAN) RAT that operates within theISM band. It should be appreciated, however, that the MWS RAT 1120 a isnot limited to LTE and could be another RAT including WiMAX and otherlike mobile wireless service technologies. It should also be appreciatedthat respective RATs 1120 may be coupled to any number of antennas 1110and that multiple RATs 1120 may also share a given antenna 1110.

In this configuration, the multi-radio wireless device 1100 includes acoexistence interface 1130 according to, for example, a universalasynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) configuration.Representatively, the coexistence interface 1130 is configured as atwo-wire asynchronous, message based serial interface. A UART wordformat for communication over the coexistence interface 1130 is shown inTable 1. Example message types communicated over the coexistenceinterface 1130 are shown in Table 2.

TABLE 1 LTE Coexistence UART Word Format b0 b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 b7 TypeType[1] Type[2] MSG[0] MSG[1] MSG[2] MSG[3] MSG[4] [0]

TABLE 2 LTE Coexistence UART Message Types Message Type Message TypeDirection Indicator Real Time Signaling Message MWS <−> BT 0x00Transport Control Message MWS <−> BT 0x01 Transparent Data Message MWS<−> BT 0x02 MWS Inactivity Duration Message MWS −> BT 0x03 MWS ScanFrequency Message MWS −> BT 0x04 RFU MWS <− BT 0x03, 0x04 RFU 0x5 VendorSpecific 0x6-0x7

The Real Time Signaling Message is a bi-directional communicationmessage that provides a real time status report between the MWS RAT 1120a and the WCN RAT 1120 b (e.g., when the MWS RAT 1120 a or the WCN RAT1120 b is transmitting or receiving, this status is communicated to theother RAT). The Transport Control Message is a bi-directional messagethat enables the request of a Real Time Signaling Message. For example,when the MWS RAT 1120 a awakes from a sleep state, a Transport ControlMessage may be issued to determine a real time status of the WCN RAT1120 b. The transparent data message is a bi-directional message with apre-defined format to exchange one nibble (i.e., 4 bits) of informationbetween RATs. Higher layers of a communication protocol may generate thetransparent data message.

As further illustrated in Table 2, the MWS Inactivity Duration Messageis a unidirectional message from the MWS RAT 1120 a to the WCN RAT 1120b that provides a sleep indication duration indicating to the WCN RATwhen the MWS RAT is inactive. The MWS Scan Frequency Message is aunidirectional message from MWS RAT 1120 a to the WCN RAT 1120 b tonotify the WCN RAT 1120 b that the MWS RAT 1120 a is performing afrequency scan.

As shown in FIG. 11, the MWS RAT 1120 a and the WCN RAT 1120 b arecollocated within the multi-radio wireless device 1100. Consequently,collocated interference 1102 is experienced when the MWS RAT 1120 a andthe WCN RAT 1120 b operate on adjacent bands. For example, the MWS RAT1120 a may be an LTE modem and the WCN RAT 1120 b may be a Bluetooth BTor WLAN modem that operates within the ISM band. As noted in FIG. 9, WCN(e.g., BT and WLAN) and MWS (e.g., an LTE modem) radio accesstechnologies operate on adjacent bands, resulting in the collocatedinterference 1102 shown in FIG. 11.

As explained in FIG. 9 and shown in FIG. 11, interference may occur whenthe WCN RAT 1120 b (e.g., an Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM)radio) receives at the same time the MWS RAT 1120 a in the device usinga proximate frequency bandwidth (e.g., a Long Term Evolution (LTE)radio) transmits. Similarly, interference may occur when the MWS RAT1120 a receives and the WCN RAT 1120 b transmits. To reduce theinterference and manage inter-radio coexistence, it is desirable tocoordinate behavior of the radios to reduce the time one radio isreceiving while another, potentially interfering, radio is transmitting.One aspect of the present disclosure uses information about the timingof scheduling MWS RAT communications to improve MWS and WCN radio accesstechnology coexistence.

One feature of LTE communications that may be exploited for purposes ofcoexistence management is the timing of scheduling of LTEcommunications. Downlink (DL) communications from a base station to auser equipment (e.g., multi-radio wireless device 1100) are scheduledvia a downlink indication that informs the user equipment (UE) that thebase station is sending data intended for that UE. Such allocations maybe transmitted to UEs served by the particular base station every 1 ms.

In a downlink allocation (also called a downlink grant) a base stationwill indicate to the UE the specific resource blocks that contain thedata intended for the UE. In addition, a base station may send a messageto a UE indicating to the UE when the UE is scheduled to transmit to thebase station. These scheduling messages are called uplink grants. Uplinkgrants are typically sent on the Physical Downlink Control Channel(PDCCH).

To allow sufficient time for an uplink grant to be received by the UE inadvance of the scheduled uplink time, an uplink grant may be sent inadvance of the scheduled uplink time. Specifically, in LTE the uplinkgrant may be sent to the UE during a downlink communication that is atleast 4 subframes (i.e., 4 ms) ahead of when the uplink communication isto occur. For example, an uplink grant sent during subframe 0 mayindicate that the UE should transmit during subframe 4. FIG. 12 is atiming diagram 1200 that shows an uplink grant message sent from thebase station to the UE during the downlink control portion of subframen. That uplink grant message indicates to the receiving UE that the UEshould transmit uplink data to the base station during subframe n+4.

FIG. 13 is a timing diagram 1300 that shows a time division duplexconfiguration in which MWS communication inactivity may be detected,according to one aspect of the disclosure. In frequency divisionduplexed (FDD) LTE communications, if an uplink grant is sent atsubframe n, the time between the sending of the uplink grant and thescheduled uplink time is n+4 ms. In time division duplexed (TDD) LTEcommunications, if an uplink grant is sent at subframe n, the timebetween the sending of the uplink grant and the scheduled uplink time isn+k where k may vary from 4 to 7 ms. Thus, assuming that a UE can decodeand parse an uplink grant within approximately 0.5 ms, the UE will havebetween 3.5 ms and 6.5 ms between when it knows it will be transmittingusing an LTE radio and when the LTE radio actually transmits.

Advance knowledge of MWS (e.g., LTE) communication activity may allowthe multi-radio wireless device 1100, and in particular a coexistencemanager, to coordinate activity between the MWS RAT 1120 a and the WCNRAT 1120 b to reduce interference. In one aspect of the disclosure, acoexistence manager uses the lead time to coordinate activity betweenthe MWS RAT 1120 a (e.g., an LTE radio) and the WCN RAT 1120 b (e.g., anISM radio) to improve multi-radio device coexistence. For example, FIG.13 shows TDD configuration number three 1302, in which an MWStransmission reset (MWS_TXreset) 1320 of the MWS RAT 1120 a is known atsubframe zero 1310. As a result, the detected MWS communicationinactivity period of the MWS RAT 1120 a can be shared with the WCN RAT1120 b.

Specifically, when a multi-radio wireless device 1100 detects an MWS(e.g., LTE) uplink grant, it may notify another radio such as the WCNRAT 1120 b, of the time during which the MWS RAT 1120 a is scheduled totransmit. In one aspect, the detection of the uplink grant may beperformed on the physical layer by a physical engine or hardware thatmay detect the MWS uplink grant and then communicate information aboutthe grant (for example, the time of the grant) to the coexistencemanager or to another radio, such as the WCN RAT 1120 b. The coexistencemanager (or other component of the multi-radio wireless device 1100) maythen schedule the WCN RAT 1120 b to avoid performing receiving(downlink) activities during that time to avoid potential collisionbetween the MWS uplink (i.e., transmission) activity and any receivingactivity of the WCN RAT 1120 b.

Further, multiple technologies which that use the WCN RAT 1120 b (suchas Bluetooth or Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)) may rescheduleplanned communications based on the knowledge of the MWS (e.g., LTE)uplink grant timing. For example, normally if a Bluetooth high priorityreceive task and WLAN low priority transmit task are scheduled for anoverlapping time period, the Bluetooth receive task would be performed(and the WLAN task delayed) due to the higher priority of the Bluetoothreceive task. If, however, those Bluetooth and WLAN tasks are scheduledfor a time period overlapping with the LTE scheduled uplink time, theWLAN transmit task may be performed instead of the Bluetooth receivetask, as the Bluetooth receive task is likely to collide with the LTEuplink, which would result in a wasted receive task. Scheduling the WLANtransmit task during the LTE uplink time allows the WCN RAT 1120 b tomake more efficient use of its resources.

Similarly, a WCN technology, such as WiFi, may reschedule plannedoperations based on the MWS (e.g., LTE) scheduled uplink time. Forexample, if a WiFi radio knows that an LTE radio is about to commencetransmission, the WiFi radio may withhold a planned transition from 5GHz operation to 2 GHz operation, as the 2 GHz operation is more likelyto collide with the LTE uplink. Instead, the WiFi radio may continue tooperate in a 5 GHz band until the potential interference has passed.Thus the WiFi radio may improve its performance by avoiding activitythat is likely to be interfered with by the LTE uplink.

FIG. 14 is a timing diagram 1400 illustrating measurement gaps in whichcommunication inactivity may be detected, according to one aspect of thedisclosure. For example, MWS (e.g., LTE) communications may also includeplanned measurement gaps 1430 (1430-1, 1430-2), which are periods ofcommunication inactivity of the LTE radio to allow measurement ofneighboring frequencies or RATs. These gaps 1432 typically are 6 ms longand occur every 40 or 80 ms depending on the LTE configuration. Not allof these gaps are used for measurement of neighboring frequencies. Whenthe LTE radio knows ahead of time which gaps are not used formeasurement, it may notify a coexistence manager (or other UE component)so that activities of other radios may be scheduled during these LTEcommunication gaps. In one aspect of the disclosure, WCN RAT 1120 btransmit or receive activities may be scheduled during such gaps so asto reduce interference between WCN activity and MWS (e.g., LTE)activity.

It should be noted that determination of potential interference dependson the direction of planned LTE and ISM communications. When both radiosare receiving, interference is not likely. Similarly, when both radiosare transmitting, interference is not likely. If, however, one radio istransmitting, receiving activity by the other may be interfered with.

In one aspect of the disclosure, a coexistence manager may reconfigureISM communications based on planned LTE activity. For example, if a WiFiradio knows that an LTE radio is about to commence transmission, theWiFi radio may withhold a planned transition from 5 GHz operation to 2GHz operation, as the 2 GHz operation is more likely to collide with theLTE uplink. Instead the WiFi radio may continue to operate in a 5 GHzband until the potential interference has passed. Thus the WiFi radiomay improve its performance by avoiding activity that is likely to beinterfered with by the LTE uplink.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating method 1500 for MWScommunication inactivity detection to improve MWS and WCN radio accesstechnology coexistence according to one aspect of the presentdisclosure. As shown in FIG. 15 a UE may receive an indication (e.g., oftime and frequency resources) of future activity of a mobile wirelessservice (MWS) radio access technology (RAT) via a physical layercommunication, as shown in block 1502. Such an indication may includeinformation about specific resource blocks (such as those discussed inreference to FIG. 4) to be used for communications by the MWS RAT. A UEmay schedule communications of a wireless connectivity network (WCN)radio access technology (RAT) based at least in part on the indicationof future activity, as shown in block 1504.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardwareimplementation for an apparatus 1600 employing a wireless communicationsystem 1614. The wireless communication system 1614 may be implementedwith a bus architecture, represented generally by a bus 1624. The bus1624 may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridgesdepending on the specific application of the wireless communicationsystem 1614 and the overall design constraints. The bus 1624 linkstogether various circuits including one or more processors and/orhardware modules, represented by a processor 1626, a receiving module1602, a scheduling module 1604, and a computer-readable medium 1628. Thebus 1624 may also link various other circuits such as timing sources,peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, whichare well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described anyfurther.

The apparatus includes the wireless communication system 1614 coupled toa transceiver 1622. The transceiver 1622 is coupled to one or moreantennas 1620. The transceiver 1622 provides a means for communicatingwith various other apparatus over a transmission medium. The wirelesscommunication system 1614 includes the processor 1626 coupled to thecomputer-readable medium 1628. The processor 1626 is responsible forgeneral processing, including the execution of software stored on thecomputer-readable medium 1628. The software, when executed by theprocessor 1626, causes the wireless communication system 1614 to performthe various functions described supra for any particular apparatus. Thecomputer-readable medium 1628 may also be used for storing data that ismanipulated by the processor 1626 when executing software. The wirelesscommunication system 1614 further includes the receiving module 1602 forreceiving an indication of future activity of a mobile wireless service(MWS) radio access technology (RAT) via a physical layer communicationand the scheduling module 1604 for scheduling communications of awireless connectivity network (WCN) radio access technology (RAT) basedat least in part on the indication of future activity. The receivingmodule 1602 and the scheduling module 1604 and the may be softwaremodules running in the processor 1626, resident/stored in the computerreadable medium 1628, one or more hardware modules coupled to theprocessor 1626, or some combination thereof.

In one configuration, the apparatus 1600 for wireless communicationincludes means for receiving The means may be the receiving module 1602and/or the wireless communication system 1614 of the apparatus 1600configured to perform the functions recited by the means. The means mayinclude the receiving module 1602, processor 270/1626, memory 272,computer-readable medium 1628, receiver 254, transceiver 1622, antennae252/1110/1620, schedule monitoring module 1012, inactivity detectionmodule 1014, coexistence manager 640 and/or coexistence interface 1130.In another aspect, the aforementioned means may be any module or anyapparatus configured to perform the functions recited by theaforementioned means.

In one configuration, the apparatus 1600 for wireless communicationincludes means for scheduling. The means may be the scheduling module1604 and/or the wireless communication system 1614 of the apparatus 1600configured to perform the functions recited by the means. The means mayinclude the scheduling module 1604, processor 270/1626, memory 272,computer-readable medium 1628, RAT scheduling module 1016, coexistencemanager 640 and/or coexistence interface 1130. In another aspect, theaforementioned means may be any module or any apparatus configured toperform the functions recited by the aforementioned means.

The examples above describe aspects implemented in an LTE system.However, the scope of the disclosure is not so limited. Various aspectsmay be adapted for use with other communication systems, such as thosethat employ any of a variety of communication protocols including, butnot limited to, CDMA systems, TDMA systems, FDMA systems, and OFDMAsystems.

It is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in theprocesses disclosed is an example of exemplary approaches. Based upondesign preferences, it is understood that the specific order orhierarchy of steps in the processes may be rearranged while remainingwithin the scope of the present disclosure. The accompanying methodclaims present elements of the various steps in a sample order, and arenot meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented.

Those of skill in the art would understand that information and signalsmay be represented using any of a variety of different technologies andtechniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information,signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout theabove description may be represented by voltages, currents,electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields orparticles, or any combination thereof.

Those of skill would further appreciate that the various illustrativelogical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described inconnection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented aselectronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. Toclearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software,various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and stepshave been described above generally in terms of their functionality.Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or softwaredepends upon the particular application and design constraints imposedon the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the describedfunctionality in varying ways for each particular application, but suchimplementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing adeparture from the scope of the present disclosure.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits describedin connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented orperformed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor(DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device,discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or anycombination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein.A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in thealternative, the processor may be any conventional processor,controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also beimplemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combinationof a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one ormore microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with theaspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in asoftware module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two.A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory,EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, aCD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. Anexemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processorcan read information from, and write information to, the storage medium.In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor.The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC mayreside in a user terminal. In the alternative, the processor and thestorage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal.

The previous description of the disclosed aspects is provided to enableany person skilled in the art to make or use the present disclosure.Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to thoseskilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may beapplied to other aspects without departing from the spirit or scope ofthe disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is not intended to belimited to the aspects shown herein but is to be accorded the widestscope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosedherein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of wireless communication, comprising:receiving an indication of time and frequency resources of futureactivity of a mobile wireless service (MWS) radio access technology(RAT) via a physical layer communication of a physical engine orhardware of a user equipment; and scheduling communications of awireless connectivity network (WCN) radio access technology (RAT) basedat least in part on the indication of time and frequency resources offuture activity, in which the indication of time and frequency resourcesof future activity is an indication of an unused measurement gap and thescheduling communications of the WCN RAT comprises scheduling WCNcommunications during the unused measurement gap.
 2. The method of claim1, in which the indication of time and frequency resources of futureactivity is an uplink grant and the scheduling communications of the WCNRAT comprises scheduling uplink activity by the WCN RAT during ascheduled time for MWS uplink communications.
 3. The method of claim 2,further comprising cancelling a planned downlink reception of the WCNRAT during the scheduled time for MWS uplink communications.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, in which the scheduling communications of the WCN RATcomprises changing a planned WCN communication mode.
 5. An apparatus forwireless communication, comprising: means for receiving an indication oftime and frequency resources of future activity of a mobile wirelessservice (MWS) radio access technology (RAT) via a physical layercommunication of a physical engine or hardware of a user equipment; andmeans for scheduling communications of a wireless connectivity network(WCN) radio access technology (RAT) based at least in part on theindication of time and frequency resources of future activity, in whichthe indication of time and frequency resources of future activity is anindication of an unused measurement gap and the means for schedulingcommunications of the WCN RAT comprises means for scheduling WCNcommunications during the unused measurement gap.
 6. The apparatus ofclaim 5, in which the indication of time and frequency resources offuture activity is an uplink grant and the means for schedulingcommunications of the WCN RAT comprises means for scheduling uplinkactivity by the WCN RAT during a scheduled time for MWS uplinkcommunications.
 7. The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising meansfor cancelling a planned downlink reception of the WCN RAT during thescheduled time for MWS uplink communications.
 8. The apparatus of claim5, in which the means for scheduling communications of the WCN RATcomprises means for changing a planned WCN communication mode.
 9. Acomputer program product, comprising: a computer-readable medium havingprogram code recorded thereon, the program code comprising: program codeto receive an indication of time and frequency resources of futureactivity of a mobile wireless service (MWS) radio access technology(RAT) via a physical layer communication of a physical engine orhardware of a user equipment; and program code to schedulecommunications of a wireless connectivity network (WCN) radio accesstechnology (RAT) based at least in part on the indication of time andfrequency resources of future activity, in which the indication of timeand frequency resources of future activity is an indication of an unusedmeasurement gap and the program code to schedule communications of theWCN RAT comprises program code to schedule WCN communications during theunused measurement gap.
 10. The computer program product of claim 9, inwhich the indication of time and frequency resources of future activityis an uplink grant and the program code to schedule communications ofthe WCN RAT comprises program code to schedule uplink activity by theWCN RAT during a scheduled time for MWS uplink communications.
 11. Thecomputer program product of claim 10, further comprising program code tocancel a planned downlink reception of the WCN RAT during the scheduledtime for MWS uplink communications.
 12. The computer program product ofclaim 9, in which the program code to schedule communications of the WCNRAT comprises program code to change a planned WCN communication mode.13. An apparatus configured for wireless communication, the apparatuscomprising: at least one processor; and a memory coupled to the at leastone processor, wherein the at least one processor is configured: toreceive an indication of time and frequency resources of future activityof a mobile wireless service (MWS) radio access technology (RAT) via aphysical layer communication of a physical engine or hardware of a userequipment; and to schedule communications of a wireless connectivitynetwork (WCN) radio access technology (RAT) based at least in part onthe indication of time and frequency resources of future activity, inwhich the indication of time and frequency resources of future activityis an indication of an unused measurement gap and the at least oneprocessor configured to schedule communications of the WCN RAT comprisesthe at least one processor configured to schedule WCN communicationsduring the unused measurement gap.
 14. The apparatus of claim 13, inwhich the indication of time and frequency resources of future activityis an uplink grant and the at least one processor configured to schedulecommunications of the WCN RAT comprises at least one processorconfigured to schedule uplink activity by the WCN RAT during a scheduledtime for MWS uplink communications.
 15. The apparatus of claim 14, inwhich the at least one processor is further configured to cancel aplanned downlink reception of the WCN RAT during the scheduled time forMWS uplink communications.
 16. The apparatus of claim 13, in which theat least one processor configured to schedule communications of the WCNRAT comprises the at least one processor configured to change a plannedWCN communication mode.